EP0226265B1

EP0226265B1 - Human body protector

Info

Publication number: EP0226265B1
Application number: EP86304312A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Susumu Higuchi
Original assignee: Itochu Corp
Current assignee: Itochu Corp
Priority date: 1985-08-16
Filing date: 1986-06-05
Publication date: 1989-12-20
Also published as: EP0226265A1; CA1246373A; JPS6241597A; JPH0650240B2; DE3667728D1; US4648136A

Description

The present invention relates to a body protector for protecting a human body from an injury caused during an attack by a knife or the like. More particularly, it relates to a human body protector used as a part of a human body protector vest which police personnel, guards or the like working at a place where there is a probability that they will be exposed to a sudden attack, or a worker usually wearing a knife for work purposes, wear.
Hitherto, police personnel or the like have worn a bullet proof protector underneath normal clothes to protect themselves from gunshot, in an emergency, and various bullet proof protectors have been developed and are used.
The bullet-proof property of conventional protectors is very satisfactory. Nevertheless, when police personnel or the like are in a dangerous situation, it is actually necessary for the protector to have both bullet-proof and blade-proof properties. A protector having a perfect blade proof function should comprise a continuous and uniform surface, i.e., a slitless protector, but this kind of protector has no flexibility and a poor wearability. Therefore, when a protector having the blade-proof function is made to have a certain flexibility, the protector having the blade-proof function must be constituted of several segments connected to each other. The protector comprising several segments necessarily has, however, small gaps between each segment and a blade can be pushed through these gaps. Therefore, this type of protector has poor blade-proof function.
Recently, a proposal for a protector that is bullet-proof and blade-proof was disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 58-19700. In this publication, the protector is provided with both a bullet proof function and a blade proof function by combining a blade-proof plate-like element having a blade-proof effect against a lethal weapon such as a sword, an ice pick, or the like, with a known bullet-proof textile sheet. This blade-proof plate-like protector comprises a plurality of blade proof elements spread over the body in one layer and two types of connecting elements connecting the adjacent blade proof elements. In this blade proof plate-like protector, some portions are formed as a two layer construction of the blade-proof elements and the connecting elements, and the other portions have a one layer constitution. Therefore, the blade-proof function of the blade-proof plate-like element acts only in the one layer constitution, and this is not sufficient in an actual dangerous situation, especially when the police personnel or the like are attacked with a pointed blade, e.g., an ice pick.
US-A 3 577 836 (Tamura) and US-A 3 829 899 (Davis) each disclose a human body protector comprising an outer layer and an inner layer, each comprising a plurality of segments, the segments of each layer being arranged with the peripheral edges of adjacent segments being in close proximity with each other, the segments of one layer overlying the peripheral edges of the segments of the other layer, the two layers being connected to each other.
In US-A 3 577 836 each segment is elliptical in cross-section. The segments of the inner layer are glued to a layer of a polyurethane foam which has a nylon cover. Each segment of the outer layer has an eyelet on its interior and a tie line is attached to the eyelet and extends between adjacent segments of the inner layer and through the layer of foam and is tied to the nylon cover.
In US-A 3 829 899 each segment is a rectangular plate and the two layer of plates are covered by cloth or cloth-like material, for example, wide plastic adhesive tape.
The present invention is characterised in that each segment has a plurality of connecting apertures, the two layers being connected to each other by first members engaging in the respective connecting apertures in the segments of the two layers, the first members allowing slight movement of the segments of one layer with respect to the segments of the other layer.
Since the protector of the present invention is formed in a two layer construction, with the peripheral edges of the segments of one layer being covered by segments of the other layer, it is capable of withstanding penetration by a pointed blade over the entire surface of the protector.
Further, since each layer is formed by a plurality of segments with the peripheral edges of the segment in close proximity with each other, the protector can be sufficiently flexible to be easily and comfortably worn.
Further, since the segments of one layer and the corresponding segments of the other layer are connected by members allowing slight relative movement of the two layers, the blade-proof effect is increased in that a penetrating energy of the blade is dispersed and eliminated by the relative movement of the two layers.
Preferably, each segment of each layer has at least one further aperture through which air can pass. This increases the permeability of the protector.
Each segment of one or both layers may have an upstanding protrusion spacing the layers of segments from each other.
Preferably, the segments of the two layers are of the same size as one another and hexagonal in shape, and second members connect one layer to the other at the places where the vertices of three segments are adjacent to one another.
Each of the first and/or second members may have a central through hole through which air can pass. This also increases the permeability of the protector.
Preferably each of the segments of one layer has a first rib aligned with a peripheral edge of a segment of the other layer, and has a peripheral second rib. Such ribs reinforce the protector and, when the peripheral second ribs are provided on the outside face of the outer layer, prevent a blade striking the protector from sliding between the segments of the outer layer.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure 1A is a plan view of a blade proof plate segment used in one embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention, illustrated in Figure 3;
Figure 1 B is a cross section view taken along the lines S₁-S₁ of Figure 1A;
Figure 2A is a plan view of a blade proof plate segment used in another embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention, illustrated in Figure 4;
Figure 2B is a cross section view taken along the line S₂-S₂ of Figure 2A;
Figure 3 is a partial plan view illustrating a front face of an embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 4 is a partial plan view illustrating a front face of another embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 5 is a plan view illustrating a rear face of the human body protectors illustrated in Figure 3 and 4;
Figure 6 is an explanatory plan view illustrating a relationship of the connections between adjacent blade proof plate segments;
Figure 7 is an enlarged cross section view of a retaining member connecting a front layer and a rear layer of the human body protector in accordance with the present invention; and
Figure 8 is a perspective view of an example of a vest with an embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention, attached thereto.

A blade proof plate segment (hereinafter), simply called the segment) P_i used in an embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention is shown in Figure 1A and Figure 1B. The segments P₁ has a regular hexagonal shape formed by six vertices A, B, C, D, E and F in a plane. A distance of a side between one vertex and an adjacent vertex has a length of 18 mm. Connecting apertures 1 each having a diameter d of 3.2 mm are provided on the middle points of lines AC, line AE, and line CE. Further, a cut out portion 1' for inserting a retaining member and having a circular arc similar to the circular arc of the connecting aperture 1 is provided on the vertices A, C, and E. A plurality of holes through which air can pass are provided at optional positions in the segment P_i. A plurality of protrusions 3 are provided on a back face of the segment P₁ to form a space between a front or outer layer constituted with the plurality of segments Pi and a rear or inner layer constituted with a plurality of segments P₂, the constitution of which is similar to the constitution of the segment P_i. The distance ℓ₁ between the vertex A and the vertex D is 36 mm. The segment P₁ of the front layer is made of a polycarbonate plate having a thickness Ti of 2 mm, and the segment P₂ of the rear layer is made of a composite material of 57% Nylon 66 and 43% glass fiber having a thickness of 1.5 mm. The shape in the plane of the segment P₂ is the same as the shape of the segment Pi, i.e., a regular hexagon.
A plurality of segments P₁ are arranged with the peripheral edges of adjacent segment P₁ in close proximity to one another to form the front layer as shown in Figure 3. A plurality of segments P₂ are also arranged in the same manner as the segments Pi to also form the rear layer as shown in Figure 5. In Figure 3, the segments P₁ of the front layer are shown by solid lines and the segments P₂ of the rear layer are shown by broken lines, so that the way the segments P_i and the segments P₂ overly the edges is clearly shown. The vertices B, D and F of the segment P₁ are positioned at the centers of three segments P₂, which are close to or in contact with each other, and the vertices A, C and E of the segment Pi are positioned at points at which three segments P₂ are close to or in contact with each other. Therefore, the adjacent vertices of the three segments Pi and the adjacent vertices of the three segments P₂ are located at the same position.
The relationship between the adjacent vertices of the segments P₁ and the segments P₂ will now be explained with reference to Figure 6. To enable a clearer understanding, lines illustrating the profile or each segment are drawn individually in Figure 6 and, therefore, spaces are shown between the adjacent segments. Accordingly, although the plurality of segments are arranged with the peripheral edges of adjacent segments in close proximity to one another, in practice a a small gap is necessarily provided between the adjacent segments and this space is used to give a flexibility to the human body protector. In Figure 6, the segments P₁ of the front layer are also shown by a solid line, and the segments P₂ of the rear layer are also shown by a broken line. Each vortex of the three segments P_i is close to or in contact at a point Xi in Figure 6, and each vertex of the three segments P₂ is close to or in contact at the same point X₁ in Figure 6. Therefore, the point Xi is not covered by any one of the segments P₁ and the segments P₂. Regarding point X₂ in Figure 6, the vertices of the three segments P₁ are close to or in contact with each other at the point X₂, but this point X₂ is covered by the segment P₂, because the point X₂ is located at a center position of the segment P₂. Consequently, as can be seen from Figure 3, all of the conterminous sides L₁, L₂ of the adjacent segments of the front layer and the rear layer are covered by the segments of the other layer, and the adjacent vertices close to or at points X₂ and X₃ are completely covered be the segment of the other layer, but the points such as the point X₁ are not covered and there is a through aperture at this point X_i.
Before describing means for closing this through aperture, a means for connecting the front layer to the rear layer will be described. An example of a connecting or retaining member 6 connecting both layers is shown in Figure 7. An eylet or a rivet having a through aperture 2' may be used as the retaining member 6. The diameter of the through aperture 2' is selected to be small enough so that a sharp pointed blade or an ice pick cannot penetrate this through aperture, and this through aperture 2' is used to provide a permeability to the human body protector together with the holes 2 arranged in the segments Pi and P₂. The front layer and the rear layer are connected by the retaining member 6, e.g., a rivet, which is inserted and secured to the connecting apertures 1 of the segment Pi and the segment P₂, which are arranged in corresponding positions on each segment Pi and P₂. As can be understood by comparing Figure 3 and 5, the arrangement of the connecting aperture 1 of the segment Pi and the segment P₂ has a reverse relationship in the top and bottom direction. In this case, the retaining member 6 may be arranged on both segments P_i and P₂ in such a manner that there is a clearance formed between the retaining member 6, the segment Pi, and the segment P₂ to ensure the flexibility of the human body protect as shown in Figure 7.
The means for closing the above-described through aperture at the point X_i will now be described. A retaining member 7 having the same shape as that of the retaining member 6 is used as the means for closing the above-mentioned through aperture. The retaining member 7 is inserted and secured to a through aperture formed by the three cut out portions 1' arranged at the vertices of the segment and having a circular arc similar to the circular arc of the connecting aperture 1. The retaining member 7 is made of a strong material, e.g., iron, steel, or the like, so the retaining member 7 can provide protection against penetration by a sharp pointed blade such as an ice pick.
Another embodiment of a human body protector in accordance with the present invention will now be described with reference to Figures 2A, 2B, and 4.
This embodiment differs from the embodiment shown Figures 1A, 1B, and 3 in the constitution of the segment used in the outer or front layer. The constitution of the segment used in the rear layer, the arrangement of the plurality of segments and the connection of both layers are substantially identical to those of the embodiment of the human body protector shown Figure 1A, 1B, and 3. As shown in Figures 2A and 2B, a segment P₃ used as the segment of the front layer includes first inner ribs 4 protruding from a front surface of the segment P₃, and arranged on the segment P₃ in such a manner that it overlies the line L₂ of adjacent segments P₂ of the rear layer, and a peripheral rib 4' protruding from the front surface of the segment P₃ and arranged on the sides of the segment P₃. Further, to prevent interference of the insertion and fixture of the retaining member 6 by the rib 4 or 4', a recess 5 for the retaining member 6 is provided on a portion of both ribs 4 or 4' near to the cut portion 1'.
The segment P₃ is made of a polycarbonate material with a thickness T₂ at the ribs 4 and 4' of 3 mm and a thickness T_i of 2 mm elsewhere. The rib 4 has a width Wi of 4 mm, and the rib 4' has a width W₂ of 2 mm. The segment P₂ of the rear layer illustrated by a broken line in Figure 2B is made of a composite material of 57% Nylon 66 and 43% glass fiber 2 mm in thickness.
As all of the conterminous sides L₂ of the adjacent segments P₂ of the rear layer, illustrated in an exaggerated state in Figure 2B, are covered by the inner ribs 4, this portion is stronger and more resistant than the corresponding portion of the segment P₁ illustrated in Figures 1A and 1 B to penetration by a sharp pointed blade or an ice pick.
Further when the sharp pointed blade or ice pick strikes at the side of the segment P₃, the peripheral rib 4' can prevent the sharp pointed blade or ice pick from sliding down the front surface of the segment P₃ and slipping in between the adjacent edges of the adjacent segment 3, i.e., line Li.
In the above described embodiments, the shape of the segment to be used as an element of the human body protector is described as a regular hexagon. A segment plate having another shape, for example, a square shape may also be used.
Figure 8 illustrates an example of a blade-proof vest 10 which can be manufactured by preparing the human body protector M, comprised of the front layer and the rear layer superimposed under the front layer, as described hereinbefore, in a suitable size and covering the member M with a suitable knitted or woven cloth 10a having a good permeability. The human body protector M is arranged on a breast portion of the vest 10, and two tapes 10b each having an adhesive tape 10c at an end portion thereof are attached to a right side and a left side of the back portion of the vest 10, and corresponding adhesive tapes 10d are attached to a right side and a left side of a front portion of the vest 10. The vest 10 can be fitted to a human body by pressing and fixing the tapes 10c to be corresponding tapes 10d.
The blade-proof vest has a excellent blade-proof function against a sharp pointed blade, an ice pick, or the like, and a good flexibility and permeability. When the protrusions are used between both layers, since a space is formed between the layers and the space guarantee the operation of the holes 2 and 2', a suitable permeability is obtained.

Claims

1. A human body protector comprising an outer layer and an inner layer, each comprising a plurality of segments (Pi, Pa; P₂), the segments of each layer being arranged with the peripheral edges of adjacent segments being in close proximity with each other, the segments (Pi, Pa; P₂) of one layer overlying the peripheral edges of the segments (P₂; Pi, P₃) of the other layer, the two layers being connected to each other, characterised in that each segment has a plurality of connecting apertures (1), the two layers being connected to each other by first members (6) engaging in the respective connecting apertures (1) in the segments of the two layers, the first members (6) allowing slight movement of the segments of one layer with respect to the segments of the other layer.

2. A human body protector as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that each segment (P₁, P₃; P₂) of each layer has at least one further aperture (2) through which air can pass.

3. A human body protector as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that each segment (Pi, P₃; P₂) of one or both layers has an upstanding protrusion (3) spacing the layers of segments from each other.

4. A human body protector as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3, characterised in that the segments (Pi, P₃; P₂) of the two layers are of the same size as one another and hexagonal in shape, and in that second members (7) connect one layer to the other at the places where the vertices (A, C, E) of three segments are adjacent to one another.

5. A human body protector as claimed in any preceding claim, characterised in that each of the first and/or second members (6, 7) has a central through hole (2') through which air can pass.

6. A human body protector as claimed in any preceding claim, characterised in that each of the segments (P₃) of one layer has a first rib (4) aligned with a peripheral edge of a segment (P₂) of the other layer and has a peripheral second rib (4').